[Avodah] [CC] The Emphasis on Empathy

[Micha Berger]

Dear Rabbi Shafran,

(First, note that this email is being shared with the Avodah discussion
group, although I hid your address from them.)

I was quite thrilled with your recent post, The Emphasis on Empathy
<https://cross-currents.com/2019/03/16/the-emphasis-on-empathy>. It
has obvious overlap with Rav Shimon's notion of expanding one's "ani".
Compare your words:

   Being concerned with the wellbeing of an insect is a low rung on the
   empathy ladder. The ultimate and most powerful concern for "the other"
   is for other people.
   ...
   People gauge gadlus ha'adam by many things. But the most essential
   marker of human growth may well be how far one has progressed from the
   selfishness that defines us at birth toward true empathy. The severely
   empathy-impaired, like the young woman on the bus line (and
   psychopaths), are essentially infants.

   For members of Klal Yisrael, the import of empathy is evident in Rabi
   Akiva's statement (quoted by Rashi) that the passuk "Love your fellow
   as yourself" (Vayikra, 19:18) is a "great principle of the Torah." And
   in Hillel's response to the man who insisted on learning the entire
   Torah on one foot: "What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow.
   That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and study it"
   (Shabbos, 31a).

   But dedication to an "other" is, in its most sublime form, expressed
   as selfless dedication to the Other. We are born selfish; and meant
   to strive toward concern for our fellows, but, ultimately, for the
   will of Hashem.

With Rav Shimon's description of the measure of a soul:

    וסגולה זו היא שיתברר ויתאמת אצל האדם איכותו של ה״אני״ שלו, כי בזה
    יומדד מעלת כל האדם לפי מדרגתו,
    האיש הגס והשפל כל ״אני״ שלו מצומצם רק בחמרו וגופו, למעלה ממנו מי
    שמרגיש ש״אני״ שלו הוא מורכב מגוף ונפש,
    ולמעלה מזה מי שמכניס לה״אני״ שלו בני ביתו ומשפחתו, והאיש ההולך על
    פי דרכי התורה, ה״אני״ שלו כולל את כל עם ישראל, שבאמת כל איש ישראל
    הוא רק כאבר מגוף האומה הישראלית.
    ועוד יש בזה מעלות של איש השלם ראוי להשריש בנפשו להרגיש שכל העולמות
    כולם הוא ה״אני״ שלו, והוא בעצמו רק כאבר קטן בתוך הבריאה כולה, ואז
    גם רגש אהבת עצמו עוזר לו לאהוב את כל עם ישראל, ואת כל הבריאה כולה.
    ולדעתי מרומז ענין זה במאמרו של הלל ע״ה שהיה אומר...

And now in transaltion, because the Avodah digest tenst ot mangle Hebrew:
    This means [a person must] have clear for himself and accept the truth
    of the essence of his "I," for with it the statures of [different]
    people are differentiated, each according to their level.
    The entire "I" of a coarse and lowly person is restricted only to
    his substance and body. Above him is someone who feels that his "I"
    is a synthesis of body and soul.
    And above him is someone who can include in his "I" all of his
    household and family. Someone who walks according to the way of the
    Torah, his "I" includes the whole Jewish People, since in truth every
    Jewish person is only like a limb of the body of the nation of Israel.
    In this [progression] there are more levels for a fully developed
    person, who can ingrain in his soul the feeling that the entire world
    is his "I," and he himself is only one small limb of all of Creation.
    Then, his self-love helps him love the entire Jewish People and
    [even] all of Creation.
    In my opinion, this idea is hinted at in Hillel's words, as he used
    to say, "If I am [not] for me, who will be for me? And when I am
    for myself, what am I?"
    ...

But there are two differences. To Rav Shimon, the ladder of empathy begins
with becoming aware that I am more than my body. He doesn't really discuss
compassion for insects beyond its inclusion in "ve'es kol heberi'ah kulah".

But more noted is your last paragraph in my above quote, "But dedication
to an 'other' is, in its most sublime form, expressed as selfless
dedication to the Other."

I think Rav Shimon would argue that our truest selfless dedication to the
Other is climbing up that scale of empathy! As he opens, "שבראנו בצלמו
ובדמות תבניתו, וחיי עולם נטע בתוכנו שיהיה אדיר חפצנו, להיטיב עם זולתנו,
-- Who created us in His Image and in the likeness of His Structure,
and planted eternal life within us, so that our greatest desire should
be to benefit others."

This is the very iqar of the Torah, to empathetically share the RBSO's
Good with others. As Hillel, Rabbi Aqiva and Ben Azzai say. And not that
we climb a ladder of empathy with others on a path to Him.

Similarly, your write that "the most essential marker of human growth
may well be how far one has progressed from the selfishness that defines
us at birth toward true empathy." WIthout the last paragraph, you could
have been saying, as Rav Shimon does, that the measure of a soul is the
number of people you identify with. But as you end, it seems you meant
"marker" as a siman, not the definition.

Of course, Rav Shimon's derekh hachaim isn't the only one by far. But
I was struck how you could say something so similar that yet had
profound differences.

Continuing with thoughts on your next CC post in my next email.